A couple of months ago, when I was exploring Kyoko
Koizumi’s (小泉今日子) extensive discography,
one of the songs that quickly grabbed my attention was “NUDIST”.
Included in Koizumi’s 8th original album “Kyoko
no Sayaku Tanoshiku Utsushiku” (今日子の清く楽しく美しく), which was released in February 1986, “NUDIST” is a
shocking piece of risqué disco coming from the tomboyish aidoru.
From my experience after listening to her albums, it was quite unusual for Kyon Kyon to
tackle this more City Pop-oriented sound, but it’s exactly this combination of disco strings in the background, a sleazy bassline and, especially, Koizumi’s
yearning vocals that makes this song work so well.
Interesting enough, “Kyoko no Sayaku Tanoshiku
Utsushiku” was divided into two parts, the first one being the “IDOL SIDE”,
which included the hit single “Nantettatte Aidoru” (なんてったってアイドル), while the other was called “ARTIST
SIDE”. “NUDIST” was the opener of the “ARTIST SIDE”, which included another single,
“Majo” (魔女).
“Kyoko no Sayaku Tanoshiku Utsushiku” reached #2 on the Oricon charts. NUDIST was written by Masumi Kawamura (川村真澄) and composed by Toshinobu Kubota (久保田利伸). As for the arrangement, Masataka Matsutoya (松任谷正隆) was the responsible.
Hi, Marcos. Thanks for putting this one up. Being just a casual fan of Kyon-Kyon, I'd never expected such a City Pop (a la Dazz Band) tune...and with Toshinobu Kubota's help, too...by the aidoru.
ReplyDeleteYour note on it being risque disco was interesting in that I've always treated Koizumi as the impish, fun-loving and troublemaking aidoru compared to Seiko-chan's girl-next-door and Akina's misunderstood high school punk. She was also quite risque in that for one of her photo books, "Koizumi Kinenkan"/小泉記念鑑 (1986) she actually did some body painting and printing, thereby actually beating BiS by several years.
(https://twitter.com/cdtacto/status/1370223557205106688)
Hi, J-Canuck.
DeleteWhen Kyon Kyon debuted, in 1982, I kind of saw her as an aidoru in the likes of Seiko Matsuda, but she quickly established her own identity. By the time "NUDIST" was released, she was already this fun-loving aidoru which you described.
In the mid-to-late 80s, aka known as Japan's Bubble Era, many different things happened in the artistic world. Few years before, the frilly aidoru would never release a photobook like the one Kyon Kyon did.
I don't know how the 70s went by in Japan, but the early-to-mid 80s can probably be seen as an hiatus for female singers, since the innocent looks took the market by storm. The mid-to-late 80s, though, changed the mood again.
Hi, Marcos. I think the 1970s aidoru were much less prolific in number but of course, there were some big names such as Pink Lady, Candies and Momoe Yamaguchi. As for the early 1980s, it was very much of a stylized girl-next-door type who apparently owned a lot of really fluffy dresses but then past 1985, the aidoru were marketed as being more daring in looks and style.
DeleteHowever, Kyon-Kyon may have been one to break the mold going into the Bubble Era before Rie Miyazawa blasted everything out of the water.